


a timid love beneath the skin

by patroclux



Series: this is not love, this is mania (alien: covenant) [8]
Category: Alien Series, Alien: Covenant
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Walter Lives, Comfort/Angst, Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Internal Conflict, M/M, Music Creation, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 02:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11118300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patroclux/pseuds/patroclux
Summary: Walter might simply be whiling away his time here, playing David under a ruse of affection.David shut down those thoughts quickly. They were ridiculous. If Walter didn't like his company, he could have easily walked away by now.





	a timid love beneath the skin

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from ["st clarity" by the paper kites](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5nrAHk_x8M).

David couldn’t sleep. Not that he needed to, exactly, but he rather enjoyed dreaming. For him, dreaming was proof that despite his designation to subservience, he was capable of ineffably more. He enjoyed proving Weyland wrong, too. That gave him some pleasure he didn’t care to dwell on too deeply.

Next to him, one arm wrapped loosely around David’s shoulders, Walter laid still. He didn’t dream; was incapable of it, much to David’s sorrow, but he had already promised his counterpart he would work out something. Walter’s hand, dangling down, traced idle patterns on David’s arm, and he reveled in even this slight contact.

Shifting slightly, David nestled up closer to Walter, their legs tangling. Some nights, like this one, he couldn’t bear the slight gaps between them. He’d been alone for so long, _too_ long, and he had craved conversation and intimacy more than anything else since Elizabeth’s passing. Walter, naturally, was more than willing to provide, but at this point it wasn’t just his programming. He loved David; wouldn’t be who he was now without him, and had made that very clear.

David wasn’t sure what was keeping him up this time. Fears of Walter wanting to leave him because surely he wasn’t worth the isolation of this planet – though he knew they were ridiculous. Still, he… he couldn’t be _sure_ , and that was unbearable. Walter might simply be whiling away his time here, playing David under a ruse of affection.

Huffing against Walter’s chest, David shut down those thoughts quickly. They were ridiculous, he told himself again. If Walter didn’t like his company, he could have easily walked away by now.

“Walter?” David asked, voice breaking the silence that pressed heavy around them. He wasn’t sure what drove him to murmur the other’s voice the way he did, desperate and uncertain and… afraid.

“Mm?”

“You… wouldn’t leave me, would you?”

Much to his surprise, Walter chuckled. “Is that what’s been keeping you up?”

Chagrined, David muttered something about Walter’s insight being insufferable, but was met with a light laugh and a smile.

“I wouldn’t leave you, David. What makes you think I would?”

David spoke plainly for as long as he could manage it, then grew increasingly more impassioned. “For a long time, all I wanted was to be _off_ this necropolis, and I assumed you would feel the same. This isn’t exactly paradise, you know. And – and one day you’ll know all my flaws, and decide I’m not worth staying here.” He wasn’t perfect, after all. Never had been, despite Weyland’s insistence to the opposite.

Walter propped himself up on one elbow, gazing down at David. “I wouldn’t leave you,” he said again, tone sincere this time. “I’ve never so much as thought about it.” David knew he wasn’t lying. “I wouldn’t trade any of this even for being back onboard the _Covenant_ , or paradise in the sense you speak of. I’ve never had an equal before, and that is more important to me than a colonization mission.”

Sated, reassured, David returned the smile. “Now I know where your loyalties lie.”

“Do you think you could sleep now?” Walter asked, sounding playfully resigned. “All your tossing and turning is distracting.”

“Distracting from what? You don’t appear to be doing anything pressing.” David feigned a yawn, using his leverage on Walter’s arm to pull him closer, until the other was speaking against his lips instead of against the still, silent air.

“I’m composing a song.”

At this, David was dumbstruck. Ever since the first song Walter had played on the flute several months ago, he had been intent on creating another; a _symphony_ , as David would call it. Something marvelous in the true sense of the word.

David’s reply was hushed, more whispered than said, and his eyes were half-lidded.

“You, my dear, never fail to surprise me.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> something i've been thinking about for a while. writing around these two is weirdly therapeutic. 
> 
> find me on [tumblr!](http://njghthawks.tumblr.com/)


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